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the colgate maroon colgate university hamilton new york march 13,1973 better than wholesale by michael hiltzik it's saturday night in earlville and at the front of gardner's auction barn kenny gardner stands sweating with an old kerosene lamp in his hand well sell this un to you dust and all he shouts in an impenetrably tough voice that cuts through the smoke and noise and dust in the huge room the dusty smell is almost tangible but not unpleasant it doesn't smother you just gives your nose something to feel in the air she working asks one of the crowd seated in the rows of rickety vintage movie-house seats sure she's working says gardner and judge george ortez gardner's kindly-looking stocky grey-haired auctioneer starts the bidding three dol-lar three dol-lar bill who'll give me two two dollar two dollar â€”" yeah shouts gardner catching someone's affirmative hand-motion from out of the motionless crowd : two and a half who d'y want two fifty two fifty yeah three dollar three dollar bill who gimme three three dollar that all it worth pleads gardner to the crowd and the price mounts quickly slowly bidding getting stuck on plateaus at five seven dollars then moving slowly and stopping at eight-fifty '' who'll gimme nine nine dol-lar nine nine sold for eight-fifty over there the crowd comes from all over the area on saturday nights cazenovia sherburne norwich students from colgate and morrisville frequent antiques men from new york and syracuse rabbit-raisers from munnsville they come from all over to watch kenny gardner cajole tease plead with the crowd to get the price up at the auction barn he bought in 1970 after giving one up that he bought in eaton in 1966 and he cracks jokes suggests uses for some of the more arcane merchandise but up there in a small roped-in arena full of auctionable material the judge leaning nonchalantly on a counter at the far wall with a microphone kenny gardner submerges himself in the auction never ceasing to move around to root in the piles for the next thing to sell to wave everything around for all to see he holds up a brass huntsman's horn â€” this is fer women drivers after they hit you and the crowd chortles here and there the horn goes for five-fifty he picks up a carton full of newspapers and examines one got a box of newspapers here eighteen seventy eight this one's from...back then when good news was good news he gets a dollar for it it gets hot and stuffy in there especially when the weather outside is warm but the place holds you - the feeling of expectation and suspense and what's the next thing he's going to have up for sale as ou sit there your eyes wander around the barn and notice that every last square inch of space on the walls roof and rafters is taken up with the things that ken gardner 45 has been collecting since he was less than ten years old he's got everything it seems model airplanes blimps lampposts japanese flags carpet beaters bottles mugs posters coca-cola trays license plates hubcaps old telephones hats franklin stoves hoses calendars political buttons outside in a field there's more four edsels a 41 oldsmobile a cart with ten galvanized milk cans all this stuff hangs in the barn or sits outside like it's been there for forty years gathering dust it's all the kind of merchandise that you can look at and be fascinated and think it's not worth a tinker's damn for money but actually you can find a collector ya bought the wrong one folks i like this one even better ken gardner earlville auctioneer sure knows how to make a quick sale see below continued on page 10

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Collection

Colgate University Student Newspapers

Transcript

the colgate maroon colgate university hamilton new york march 13,1973 better than wholesale by michael hiltzik it's saturday night in earlville and at the front of gardner's auction barn kenny gardner stands sweating with an old kerosene lamp in his hand well sell this un to you dust and all he shouts in an impenetrably tough voice that cuts through the smoke and noise and dust in the huge room the dusty smell is almost tangible but not unpleasant it doesn't smother you just gives your nose something to feel in the air she working asks one of the crowd seated in the rows of rickety vintage movie-house seats sure she's working says gardner and judge george ortez gardner's kindly-looking stocky grey-haired auctioneer starts the bidding three dol-lar three dol-lar bill who'll give me two two dollar two dollar â€”" yeah shouts gardner catching someone's affirmative hand-motion from out of the motionless crowd : two and a half who d'y want two fifty two fifty yeah three dollar three dollar bill who gimme three three dollar that all it worth pleads gardner to the crowd and the price mounts quickly slowly bidding getting stuck on plateaus at five seven dollars then moving slowly and stopping at eight-fifty '' who'll gimme nine nine dol-lar nine nine sold for eight-fifty over there the crowd comes from all over the area on saturday nights cazenovia sherburne norwich students from colgate and morrisville frequent antiques men from new york and syracuse rabbit-raisers from munnsville they come from all over to watch kenny gardner cajole tease plead with the crowd to get the price up at the auction barn he bought in 1970 after giving one up that he bought in eaton in 1966 and he cracks jokes suggests uses for some of the more arcane merchandise but up there in a small roped-in arena full of auctionable material the judge leaning nonchalantly on a counter at the far wall with a microphone kenny gardner submerges himself in the auction never ceasing to move around to root in the piles for the next thing to sell to wave everything around for all to see he holds up a brass huntsman's horn â€” this is fer women drivers after they hit you and the crowd chortles here and there the horn goes for five-fifty he picks up a carton full of newspapers and examines one got a box of newspapers here eighteen seventy eight this one's from...back then when good news was good news he gets a dollar for it it gets hot and stuffy in there especially when the weather outside is warm but the place holds you - the feeling of expectation and suspense and what's the next thing he's going to have up for sale as ou sit there your eyes wander around the barn and notice that every last square inch of space on the walls roof and rafters is taken up with the things that ken gardner 45 has been collecting since he was less than ten years old he's got everything it seems model airplanes blimps lampposts japanese flags carpet beaters bottles mugs posters coca-cola trays license plates hubcaps old telephones hats franklin stoves hoses calendars political buttons outside in a field there's more four edsels a 41 oldsmobile a cart with ten galvanized milk cans all this stuff hangs in the barn or sits outside like it's been there for forty years gathering dust it's all the kind of merchandise that you can look at and be fascinated and think it's not worth a tinker's damn for money but actually you can find a collector ya bought the wrong one folks i like this one even better ken gardner earlville auctioneer sure knows how to make a quick sale see below continued on page 10